Wasing Park wedding photography
Monday, January 18th, 2010Jamie, Beth, inspired idea to feature your late Grandparents within photo frames as the table names and decorations for your Wasing Park wedding.
Photographically, there is a documentary moment at most weddings when a father’s eyes will meet those of his daughter’s for the first time as she stands before him in her wedding gown. The intensity differs from father to father of course and even those dads with the most obdurate courage find this to be one moment more than any other during the day, where a myriad of emotions flatten any wall of masculine parental steely resolve they thought they possessed. It’s fabulous. Professional platitudes abound on the web, so I’ll cautiously express a somewhat overused term; privilege. As a documentary maker, albeit in stills, that’s what makes this job so important, he says, hearing the opening bars of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ fading up behind this blog entry. Listen, I can swill beer, crack beer nuts and talk sport with the best of ‘em at any bar in this land where spit and sawdust define the landlord’s choice of decor. But I’ll also experience and hopefully always will, a lump in the throat when I witness the sincere pride liberated by a father with momentary tunnel vision, who can see no further than his ‘little girl’ on the morning of her wedding. Phew, that’s said. Okay, big hearty Haka lads and let’s get back to talking rugby.
Where are they now? Annabel and Mike
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009It’s fair to say that most of us are so preoccupied being busier than busy in this hectic go go non stop You Tube Google World we frequent personally and professionally, that we forget to take stock and remember sometimes where we’ve been and what we’ve achieved. Well, I’m going to try and redress that with the following blog feature. It won’t be long before I’ll be batting at the 200 not out wicket, a double century of weddings; experience that began tentatively covering my best man’s brother’s wedding as a favour, to a career that has taken me across continents. I’ve been trained and mentored by some of the industry’s finest and found new important friendships with fellow pros that share the following professional impulse; a desire to document a day so uniquely special to each client and do it whatever the weather, whatever the day and even when England are playing a World Cup match that’s actually on a channel we don’t have to pay for. We’ve been tremendously lucky at Breathe in that we established a social portraiture and wedding photography business in Newbury earlier this decade that has not only provided us with an income to feed hungry family mouths, but introduced us to some fabulous couples and families. It’s their stories that enthuse upon me that weekends were not made for drinking beer and watching X Factor, and so I begin a series of blog entries about the couples I have witnessed saying ‘I do’ through a selection of lenses. 3rd February 2007, Annabel and Mike were wed in Windsor with a wedding reception at Great Fosters near Egham; a grade one listed building that is remarkable for a list of reasons that would make this blog unreadably long. In Annabel’s words: “Mike and I are doing great, still living in Windsor. We’ve been back to Great Fosters for our last two wedding anniversaries, which was really lovely. We always pay homage to Jane Austen’s curtains. (A reference to the fact that needing to darken a scene whilst photographing the couple round the hotel, I whipped these historic items closed risking the demise of one of the World’s most historic curtains.) Mike went out to South Africa in June on a boys tour to watch the Lions. He ended up doing the highest bungee jump in the World off Bloukrans Bridge (about 216 m) – crazy fool. All 18 stones of Yorkshire goodness dangled on a piece of elastic! Other than that, we’re still at the same house but have been giving it and the garden a bit of a makeover. No baby Annabel and Mikes… yet.”
Wasing Park wedding photography
Sunday, July 19th, 2009Just a quick blog to announce that Giovanni and Sabrina’s wedding website has gone live through our client area. Fabulous wedding at Wasing Park and what a party! Incidentally, and this is one for grooms with upcoming stag parties abroad, working as air crew on short haul Sabrina has seen her fair share of stags destined for places like Prague. One poor chap recently boarded dressed as Sesame Street’s Big Bird character (how on earth did he get through Customs???) Once they were at cruising altitude, his mates gleefully announced that he may well be enroute for a weekend’s beer fest, but his suitcase was stored safely back in Blighty. The only thing he had to wear all weekend, was one big feathery yellow costume. Nice one!
Rivervale Barn wedding photography in Yateley
Thursday, July 16th, 2009Solid day today spent at Rivervale Barn in Yateley shooting test and stock images for this stunning new wedding venue set on the banks of the Blackwater, approximately one hour from the smoke. It’s one of the most incredible barn projects I have ever seen but don’t just take my word for it, take a peak at the images below. (65,000 reclaimed tiles by the way, now THAT takes some laying.) Owned by John and Moyra Illsley, they’ll also be your hosts for the showround if you visit. I think meeting the owners creates a special relationship when planning a wedding, without doubt. By the way, if you’re wondering who the mystery bride is, it’s Nat, our new recruit at Breathe Pictures! She recently joined the company to fulfil a retouching and photographic assisting role. Dressing you up as a bride for some test shots at Rivervale Barn may have seemed a strange initiation Nat, but I think you rose to that challenge well! (Flowers courtesy Cherubs of Reading and bridal wear from Jennies, as featured on recommended links.)
Wasing Park wedding photography – Robbie and Sarah
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
For fear of becoming a BBC repeat, I may have mooted this before; keeping up the blog is sometimes like keeping the diary you were bought for Christmas aged 9. (For some reason mine was always a Disney one featuring Mickey and friends. It continued that way well into my teens.) You diligently filled it in for ooh, a good seven days following New Year’s Eve, then it became a series of ‘Got up, had lunch, went to bed’ comments for week two and by week three, it transgressed to a doodle pad at best. However I have a blog guardian it seems in Robbie, who wed Sarah yesterday at Wasing Park. So, Robbie, your enthusiasm for updating noted, some images from yesterday. I look forward to seeing you when you return from your honeymoon in July.
The Black Barn wedding photography
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Page boy awaits bride
Their private viewing gallery now online, here’s just a few scene setters from Chris and Caroline’s wedding in Berkshire.
Wasing Park wedding photography – Matt and Anna
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
A first today, well in wedding photography terms for me. It was the second of two ‘in a row-ers’ at Wasing Estate as I photographed Matt and Adrianna’s wedding. I’m not a shrinking violet when it comes to addressing guests on the big day. I’d like to think, although you’d have to ask the guests to see if they’d corroborate, that I’m politely and respectfully assertive. A lot of people, and certainly photographers, seem to me vocally shy, even awkward when it comes to gathering guests to construct group portraits. I can’t help thinking that many a fabulous photographer chooses to label him or herself a photojournalist, because the idea of having to organise strangers is such a long distance drive out of their comfort zone, that it’s easier to purchase a 300mm lens and shoot guests from afar. And so today it came to the cutting of the cake. It’s not unusual that I take on the task of gathering eager friends and relatives around the sugar zone for the ‘knife snap.’ But on this occasion I had the benefit of a microphone. Ahhh, I thought, the legendary Shure SM58 microphone… always one to warm up a voice if held just at the right pitch from yer’ lips. Rattle your yaffle correctly with a little depth, and they’ll hear you in Norway. So, I said my piece, gathered guests, collected the shots and moved on. Come the first dance, the DJ planted his microphone in my hands and supported by the groom, persuaded me to introduce the first dance. “You don’t seem to be shy, you’ve got a half decent voice, so would you mind?” Mind? Mind? Me? Of course not. A little trip down memory lane from my broadcasting roots of yesteryear. Hopefully, if you read enough of these posts, you will have worked out I don’t use it to talk of a million and one awards and accolades. But maybe, just maybe, I can claim an accolade, a USP perhaps, my peers would find hard to match. Having worked enough stages and reasonably large arenas in my brief affair as a broadcaster with Radio 1 in the early 90s, (clang name drop) I can now make myself available to photograph a wedding and MC the day’s events, as long as you order a Shure SM58 (the sound geeks will register my excitement and understand.) Anyway, before this all becomes really quite self absorbed, some favourite clicks from the initial download featuring the main event of today; Matt and Adrianna. Have a great honeymooon ‘guys.’
Wasing Park wedding photography – Jay and Katy
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
It’s a Wasing weekend this week as I find myself there on two consecutive days. Jay and Katy’s 70 friends and family members witnessed their nuptials yesterday. I love a good tactile wedding, loads of hugs, tub thumpy kind of hearty ‘I love ya mate’ rugby scrum down embraces. This one had plenty!
